The time has come for the heroes to take their places as true pirate lords. But doing so will require more than a ship, a scallywag crew, and a hold full of plunder—they’ll need to win the esteem of the Hurricane King himself. If they succeed, they’ll earn the right to claim even greater glory by participating in the Free Captains’ Regatta, a grueling race along the fringes of the mighty hurricane called the Eye of Abendego. The winners receive a fat prize purse, their own private island, and a seat on the Pirate Council of the Shackles. Will the adventurers triumph against fierce competitors, old rivals, and the treacherous winds and currents of the Eye? Or will their ship be claimed by the storm, a doom that’s befallen so many before them?

Details on the infamous pirate lords of the Shackles and new rules for storms at sea,
by Tork Shaw.

A gazetteer of the infamous pirate city of Port Peril, by Liz Courts.

Ghosts and cylcopes in the Pathfinder’s Journal, by Robin D. Laws.

Five new monsters, by Jesse Benner, Ryan Costello, Philip Minchin, and Tork Shaw.

Each monthly full-color softcover Pathfinder Adventure Path volume contains an in-depth adventure scenario, stats for several new monsters, and support articles meant to give Game Masters additional material to expand their campaign. Pathfinder Adventure Path volumes use the Open Game License and work with both the Pathfinder RPG and the world's oldest fantasy RPG.

Average product rating:

Brilliant piratical module

The main premise of the adventure is that the PCs are a gang of would-be pirates on their way to establish their (bad) reputation. They need to convince the pirate lord that they are good enough as to earn a letter of marque and eventually a seat in the pirate council. The whole module is a test of skill and wits to increase their station among pirates.

Overall, all the parts offer enough variation to keep the players engaged and excited. The author has done a good job. I think it's an entertaining mid-level adventure that will not disappoint.

My rating: 5 stars. It's an exciting module with short location-based dungeon maps, lots of social interaction and a good story to back it up. Two thumbs up.

3 stars in most places but less in others

Another reviewer mentioned that this adventure needs a flow chart. That is exactly what I did and it was a headache. Other elements that made this frustrating was the need to bounce back and forth between locations just to gather information only after completing tasks that required more island hopping.

This is my first time running an adventure path and I'm doing it with experienced gamers. What I've noticed is that they largely eat up the challenges like they were nothing. In fact, the biggest challenges have mostly been went they went off book and I create encounters. I'm also running Rise of the Runelords for a much less experienced group and it poses a real challenge for them. I wish there were several power level options.

The biggest flop in this book- and it shouldn't have been- was the regatta at the end. The entire AP has been loading the adventurers up with treasure to give them an edge during the race. Also, my players have optimized themselves as sailors and able bodied adventurers on the sea. There was very little challenge for them during the race. They were so fast, they completed the race in one day. The storm bound hazards were no challenge since, the captain rolled between 35-45 consistently on every Profession Sailor DC needed. The Invisible Stalkers were the only thing that gave them a run for their money.

I'm hoping that the Island of Empty Eyes is more challenging, particularly since its on land.

Originaly posted at www.throatpunchgames.com , a new idea every day!
TL;DR-And now the low point of the adventure path 2.5/5

Plot-Spoilers ahead!- The pirates are Full Free Captains of the Shackles, but now must prove that they are truly made for the Shackles and become members of the pirate council. Before this, they undertake an investigation to find who is feeding information to hated Cheliax. After the mystery, they are sponsored to undertake a race through the eye of Abendego. Finishing the race, the players are almost true members of the council.

GM Impressions-Well, my players were mostly bored at this point. The characters are mid level in this adventure, and this is where most campaigns die, and this one almost made mine go out too. The nature of this adventure is basically fun, but my players really didn’t enjoy the island hopping and social side of this adventure. Also, some of the plot does not make sense as extremely powerful groups know the answer and will only help the PCs if they perform a few fetch quests for them. This kind of killed the momentum of the previous, awesome adventure. I was bored, and the players were bored. Nothing in the story really fed my interest and the PCs had a hard time finding aspects to keep things going in their own right. Its not a bad adventure, its just not as much fun as the other parts of the adventure path. The adventure does finish with the amazing race through the storm. That really woke the PCs up, and gave me something to keep them going.

Good-This adventure finishes with a phenomenal race in a typhoon. Also, there is a chance to real build the work of the adventure path.

Bad-If your PCs don’t want world building, then they will get bored. My PCs decided to ask for a simpler way to get out of the fetch quests. Your PCs may to if they are the killy-killy stab-stab types. Keep that in mind

Final Thoughts- This is the low point of the path. It’s not “bad” as Paizo doesn’t do much bad, but coming of the high of the previous adventure, it’s the low point of the path (not Jurassic Park 3 bad compared to Jurassic Park 1, but Star Wars 6 compared to Star Wars 5). Keep in mind the wants of the PCs and you may have to do some heavy lifting as a GM to keep the pace going 2.5/5

Make Waves on a Pirate Ship: TEMPEST RISING: SKULL & SHACKLES III

This leg of the adventure path is where the characters prove themselves worthy of leadership. It combines both daring-so, in the form of the Regata and the test for the title Free Captains. There is also a mystery portion which will either delight of frustrate your players. It's a hard balance to hit; we found it too easy. I have seen others miss the most obvious clues...mysteries are hard to balance. Still, this is a great continuation of my favorite Adventure Path thus far. Check my full review here: Tempest Rising

Paizo needs plot flow charts

This adventure is pretty fun for my players right now, but the hodge-podge of clues and intrigue points starts to make running the adventure somewhat tedious.

I propose that Paizo include one page in each adventure path that details all of the plot progression points in a flow chart, or plot circle fashion so the GM can easily track the plot and can navigate the adventure without having to jump around in the book randomly to try set up his/her own plot flow chart.

I think this simple inclusion would make Tempest rising and other adventure paths more exciting to run and less tedious for GMs

[update 2/7/2013] The players finished this AP. The beginning portion of the AP was basically skipped over due to the fact that the contests and the whole setup felt somewhat contrived with a nobody orc insinuating himself into the pirate's lives. The second part of the AP was the most difficult as it was a large intrigue involving many NPC's and locales. I purchased the Isles of the Shackles supplement to augment the locales with hopefully some visuals (maps of the ports of call) but was disappointed that it didn't contain island maps I needed to make the locales come to life.
The AP picked up noticeably towards the end with the regatta, and the players were noticeably more excited to get involved in a seafaring adventure at the end of the AP. The way scoring was done worked well and the introduction of the PC's nemesis gave them some motivation.

Overall, I would have liked to have seen the locales fleshed out more. The inner sea world guide is replete with maps of each locale in the book and the middle part of the adventure would have been better served by having some visual aides.